[4] Social Structure and Social Interaction (Henslin)

• Levels of Sociological Analysis

  • Macrosociology
  • Microsociology
• Macrosociology


  Broad features of society
• Microsociology


  Focuses on social interactions, what people do when they come together
• Both macrosociology and microsociology have distinctive perspectives, and both are needed for a fuller understanding of social life
• Social structure


  Typical patterns of a group, framework of society. People learn their behaviors and attitudes because of their location in the social structure (whether those are privileged, deprived, or in between), and they act accordingly
• Social structure tends to override our personal feelings and desires
• Major components of social structure

  • Culture
  • Social Class
  • Social Status
  • Roles
  • Group
  • Social Institutions
• Culture


  A group's language, beliefs, values, behaviors, and material objects
• Social Class


  Determined based on income, education, and occupational prestige
• Social Status


  A position that someone occupies
• Types of Social Status


  • Status Sets
  • Ascribed and Achieved Statuses
  • Status Symbols
  • Master Statuses
  • Status Inconsistency
• Status Sets


  Statuses or positions someone occupies
• Ascribed and Achieved Statuses


  Involuntary status and voluntary status respectively
• Status Symbols


  Signs that identify a status
• Master Statuses


  Cuts across your other statuses (could be either ascribed or achieved)
• Status Inconsistency


  Mismatch among their statuses
• Roles


  You occupy a status, but you play a role (expectations, responsibilities, etc)
• Group


  Consists of people who interact with one another (must feel that the values, interests, and norms they have in common are important)
• Social Institutions


  Established patterns of beliefs, behaviors, and relationships that organize social life
• Functionalist Perspective


  Societies establish customary ways to meet their basic needs
• Functions of the Functionalist Perspective


  • Replacing members
  • Socializing new members
  • Producing and distributing goods and services
  • Preserving order
  • Providing a sense of purpose
• Conflict Perspective


  Powerful groups control our social institutions, manipulating them in order to maintain their own privileged position of wealth and power
• Symbolic Interaction


  Focuses on how people view things and how this, in turn, affects their behavior and orientations to life
• Stereotypes in Everyday Life


  Based on your assumptions of certain characteristics, this sets off a self-feeding reaction
• Personal Space


  A "personal bubble" that we only open to close friends and family. The extent of how big this bubble is depends on the person
• Eye Contact


  Controlling eye contact is one way to protect our personal bubble cause it could be seen as an invitation to intimacy
• Smiling


  Its smiling, what do you want me to put here
• Body Language


  Used to portray messages to others and we learn to interpret body language since we were little children
• Applied Body Language


  The interpretation and understanding of body language applied in certain situations
• Dramaturgy: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life


  An approach, pioneered by Erving Goffman, in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage; also called dramaturgical analysis
• Stages in Dramaturgy


  • Front stages
  • Back stages
• Front stages


  Found in everyday life, its wherever you deliver your lines
• Back stages


  A place we can retreat for privacy and rest
• Role performance


  The particular interpretation that you give a role, your "style"
• Role conflict


  What is expected of us in one role conflicts with other roles
• Role strain


  The same status contains incompatible roles
• Sign-Vehicles


  • Social setting
  • Appearance
  • Manner
• Social setting


  The place where the action unfolds, wherever you interact with others
• Appearance


  How you look during your roles
• Manner


  The attitudes you show as you play your roles